Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Terry Gilliams 1998 Fear conveys perfectly what it feels like to come down from a hit of bad synthetic mescaline. Whether that is sufficient rationale for all the expense and effort of making a movie is a question a viewer must answer for himself. Johnny Depp, about as miscast as any handsome young leading man could be as raspy, jittery Hunter S. Thompson avatar Raoul Duke, turns the role into a personal triumph. Benicio Del Toro put on 40 pounds to play Thompsons gross-bellied Samoan side-kick, Dr. Gonzo, and handles the grossness with such delicacy that its like watching a rhino dance Swan Lake. Its an index of Gilliams limitations as a filmmaker that these two brilliant performers rarely seem to be on the same wavelength. This is a particular problem in the three sequences in the film in which womena.k.a. the Otherfeature as anything beyond grotesque background figures. (R) ROGER DOWNEY